


I’d Wait for Life

by Bbnabhk



Series: Back for Good [2]
Category: Take That (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-14
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2020-05-07 12:11:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19209178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bbnabhk/pseuds/Bbnabhk
Summary: Sequel to “Back for Good.” Gary gets a second chance 15 years later.





	I’d Wait for Life

Everyone noticed how irritable Gary had been; everyone but Robbie, that is, but he was usually oblivious to that kind of thing anyway. And the irritability had never been directed towards him, even if he was the cause of it. Gary smiled at him from across the room. They were in a studio in New York writing and recording what would be their first album as a five-piece in fifteen years. Robbie smiled back, but his attention was immediately pulled away by Jason wanting to read some lyrics on his laptop. The smile fell from Gary’s face, and he turned back to his keyboard, playing a sad but melodic tune.

Howard watched the entire exchange in silence. Just earlier, Gary had exploded at him for not taking the writing process seriously. Sure, he and Robbie were drawing penises in each other’s notebooks, but Robbie was the one who playfully pulled at his joggers to compare the drawing to real life.

By lunch, Gary’s foul mood had reached its peak. “I asked for no eel sauce!” he huffed, tossing his tray of sushi to the side.

“Sorry, Gaz,” Mark apologized from his cozy seat on the sofa next to Robbie. “I’m sure I told them when I placed the order.”

Gary crossed his arms and slumped back in his chair. “Uh-huh.”

Howard picked up a piece of sushi from the discarded tray and popped it in his mouth. “Tastes fine to me,” he said, pieces of rice spitting out. “What are you going to do, not eat? My daughter used to throw tantrums like that when she was four.”

“I’ll be fine,” Gary muttered. “And I don’t appreciate being compared to a little girl,” he snarled.

His demeanor softened when Robbie held out his tray. “You can have some of mine.”

“Cheers, mate.” Gary reached under the tray to steady it, curling his fingers ever-so-slightly against Robbie’s as he tried to maneuver his chopsticks around a roll. It ended up falling onto the table between them. The other three lads reeled back for the impending outburst, but it didn’t come. Robbie’s laughter seemed to calm his bandmate down, and Gary simply picked up the roll with his fingers and brought it to his mouth, a smile playing at his lips.

This confused Howard to no end. “Alright, what’s going on?” he demanded to know.

Robbie looked at his friend with eyebrows raised. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that Gaz has been running hot and cold ever since we started writing!”

Gary glared at him. “I haven’t!”

“We’ve all noticed it,” Jason added.

“I haven’t noticed it,” Robbie said, raising his hand slightly.

“Well of course you haven’t. You’ve been the only one he hasn’t gone off on.” Howard turned his attention back to Gary. “So come out with it. What’s been going on with you?”

“I’d rather not—”

“We said no more secrets.” Mark’s voice was quiet but full of concern.

“This secret doesn’t concern you.”

“It does when it affects the band and how you’ve been treating each of us!” Howard wasn’t taking anymore excuses.

Gary looked from one bandmate to another with his eyes finally resting on the youngest member. The meaning behind those eyes were finally starting to dawn on Robbie. He opened his mouth to say something, but Gary beat him to the punch.

“I’m in love with Rob.”

Robbie stiffened in his seat and looked down, gaining a sudden interest in his chopsticks.

“You’re what?” Howard asked incredulously.

“I’m in love with Rob.” He pointed at the man across from him for emphasis.

“I don’t understand.” Howard was having difficulty comprehending the meaning behind those words.

They turned their attention to Robbie. “Did you know about this?” Jason ventured to ask.

Robbie drummed his chopsticks against his leg, still not looking up. “We had talked about it during ‘the chat,’ yeah,” he admitted. He finally looked up at Gary. “We agreed to leave the past in the past.”

Gary nodded at him silently, trying not to let his emotions betray him.

“The past, as in this has come up before?” Howard asked.

Gary looked to Robbie for permission. The younger man shrugged. “No more secrets,” he said simply.

Gary exhaled a long, drawn out breath. “We were… we da… we had a thing in the 90’s.”

“A love affair kind of thing?” Mark asked, choosing his words carefully.

“Yeah.”

They descended into a silence before Jason tried his hand at mediating the situation.

“So it obviously didn’t end well in the 90’s.” He looked to Robbie, who sat up straighter in his seat. “Was it the…?”

“No!” Gary jumped to his defense. “It was me. It was my fault. I made some bad decisions back then. I’m still paying for my mistakes.”

“Okay.” Jason gave him an encouraging smile. “Well, Rob, we know how Gary feels. How about you?”

Robbie looked Gary up and down and gave him a look the older man couldn’t quite read. Then he tossed the chopsticks down on the table and stood up. “I feel like I don’t need three other people meddling in this.”

Gary bit his bottom lip as he watched Robbie walk out of the room.

“That went well,” Howard joked, trying to break the tension.

“I’ll go talk to him.” Mark stood and followed his friend down the corridor.

“What did you do?” Jason looked at him with concern. Gary shook his head, not wanting to dredge up his past misdemeanors. If it took Robbie fifteen years to tolerate being in the same room as him, he didn’t want to find out how the others would react. “If we knew, maybe we could help.”

“I was young and ambitious and stupid,” was all he would say. Jason and Howard looked at each other and shrugged, neither knowing what to think.

Mark returned to the room moments later, noticeably without a certain popstar in tow, but he was grinning. “He agreed to a date tonight!”

“A date?” Gary’s jaw dropped.

Mark plopped down in the seat Robbie had vacated. “Meet him at his room at 7. There’s this really good Indian restaurant I liked last time we were over here. I can call and make reservations.” He was already on his phone before Gary could respond.

“You should wear that blue jumper you had on the other day!” Jason suggested. “It’ll bring out your eyes.”

“And take a walk in Central Park after. No one knows us here. You won’t get stopped by fans or paparazzi. It’ll be nice and romantic,” Howard added.

All three looked at Gary expectantly. He hadn’t said a word since their well-meaning suggestions started pouring out.

“Um, yeah, thanks. I should probably go talk to Rob and make sure he’s okay.”

“He’s in the recording booth.” Mark gestured toward the general area. “He wanted some time by himself.”

Three pairs of eyes followed as Gary made his way out the door. He found Robbie humming to himself in the booth, smoking a cigarette. Gary pressed the button to make himself heard in the booth.

“Mind if we have a word?”

Robbie looked up in surprise but waved him in nonetheless. Gary squeezed in beside his friend.

“I hope Mark didn’t pressure you into something you didn’t want to do.”

“What did you expect to happen when you made that revelation in front of everyone?” Robbie took in the pained look on Gary’s face and sighed. “You know no can make me do anything I don’t already want to do.”

The older man smiled. “They’re already out there planning our night. I hope you’re in the mood for Indian.”

Robbie chuckled. “I hope you’re not expecting to get me into bed after I’ve had a curry.”

Gary laughed. “I’ll be a perfect gentleman.” He paused. “Are we really doing this?”

The brunette clapped a hand on his back. “I think so. Besides, I don’t think the others would let us back out now.”

—-

“Do you think things would have worked out better for us before if we had actually gone on proper dates?”

Robbie pondered the question as they walked through Central Park, letting their food settle after dinner.

“We were always under the watchful eye of someone back then. It was all we could do to sneak around. Going out to dinner and a movie would have been damn near impossible.”

“But look at us now.” Gary slid an arm around Robbie’s waist as they continued walking. Robbie threw his around the smaller man’s shoulders in return. “Fifteen years later, we’re finally on our first date!”

Robbie giggled at the absurdity of it all. They walked past a slew of street performers until Gary stopped them at a violinist.

“I’d love to have a big orchestra back us for some of the songs on the album,” he commented. “Give it a big production feel.”

“I did that for the swing album. They were extremely talented people.”

“But nowhere near as talented as you, right?” Gary teased.

“God no!” 

They both laughed but quickly quieted themselves when the violinist looked up. Gary dropped a five dollar bill into her open violin case and nodded a silent praise at her.

“Thank you, sir!” she gushed. “Any requests?”

He smirked at his friend. “Do you know any Robbie Williams songs?”

Robbie smacked his shoulder.

She looked at both of them apologetically. “I’m sorry. I don’t even know who that is.”

Robbie turned around and bit the inside of his mouth to stop himself from speaking. 

“That’s alright,” Gary continued, keeping a straight face. “I hear he has a massive ego anyways.”

Robbie shoved his knuckles into his mouth to suppress his laughter.

“How about some Billy Joel?”

“That I do know!” she said happily as she started the opening chords of “Just the Way You Are.”

Gary reached over to his friend and spun him around until they were face to face. “Don’t go changing to try and please me…” he started singing.

As he sang, they started attracting a crowd. Robbie backed away instinctively but continued to grin goofily at both performers. During the second verse, a man walked by and tossed some change at Gary’s feet; Robbie lost his composure and had to walk off. Gary found him afterwards leaning against a tree, still wiping tears of laughter from his face.

“We made eight dollars and fifty-three cents!” he exclaimed. “I let her keep my share.”

“How chivalrous of you!”

“You missed the big finale.”

“I’ll have to catch the encore when you sing ‘Piano Man’ with the man with the xylophone at the train station.”

They giggled together and continued walking.

They ended up back at the hotel, standing outside Robbie’s room.

“Why, Mr. Barlow, you really didn’t have to walk me all the way to my door.”

Gary leaned in. “It’s my pleasure,” he whispered.

Robbie looked down and examined the face looking up at him. Gary’s eyes were wide and hopeful, his lips slightly parted, and his head cocked toward the taller man’s shoulder. The eyes followed Robbie’s tongue as it darted out and licked his lips. The younger man took a quick look around and nodded toward the security camera monitoring the corridor. Gary acknowledged it in disappointment.

“Do you want to come in?”

“God yes!” He followed Robbie through the doorway and listened for the distinctive click of a lock being turned before turning around and wrapping his arms around his date. He felt a pair of arms envelope him in return.

Robbie closed his eyes and pressed their foreheads together. “This is nice. It feels… right,” he muttered.

Gary tilted his head up until their lips met. It was a soft, chaste kiss that deepened as they pulled each other closer. Gary parted his lips and felt Robbie’s tongue find his own. He threw an arm around the taller man’s neck to pull him down further while the other arm wrapped tighter around his waist. He needed the closeness; he needed Robbie to feel the intimacy.

Robbie broke the kiss as his stomach started rumbling. He giggled and rubbed the back of his head. “I warned you about that curry,” he said apologetically.

Gary gave him another peck on the lips. “That’s alright. We should be taking things slow anyways.”

“Yeah,” Robbie agreed. “Slow. I think we can manage that.”

—-

By the end of the week, Gary was regretting his words. He and Robbie had spent every evening together cuddling, kissing, and letting their hands wander, getting reacquainted with each other’s bodies. But every time Gary would try to go a little further, Robbie would pull away. His self-control was admirable, but Gary was getting a little tired of the cold showers. Shouldn’t sex with Robbie Williams have been a sure thing?

Gary groaned as Robbie pushed him away once again. He was making his way down the younger man’s chest, tracing each tattoo with his tongue. He had just made it past the swallows and was aiming for the waistband of his trousers when he felt hands pulling him back up.

“Rob…” he whinged. He could feel Robbie’s erection pressed against his chest. “I know you want this.”

“I thought we were taking things slow.”

Gary flopped over onto his back beside his lover. “There’s slow, and there’s nonexistent!” he huffed.

“Don’t be like that.”

“Like what? Sexually frustrated?”

“It hasn’t even been a week!”

“It’s been fifteen years!”

“Well at least you can remember it!”

“What are you talking about?” Gary asked.

Robbie crossed his arms and frowned. “Do you remember the last time we had sex? Because all I can remember is waking up the next morning with a sore head and a sore arse and bruises all over.”

Gary bit his bottom lip. “Yeah, I guess you were a little drunk, and I was a little rough.”

“It’s horrifying waking up beside the man you loved and trusted and not knowing why everything ached,” Robbie whispered. “It was never just sex between us, not like that.”

“You were always safe with me. We were both just… hurting at the time. I’m sorry if I took advantage of the situation.” Gary turned to his side and looked at the man beside him. “You might not remember the last time we had sex, but do you remember the last time we made love?”

Robbie glanced at him sideways and raised an eyebrow.

The smaller man cuddled closer and continued. “It was about a week before we broke up. You were staying at my place, and we were making breakfast together.”

Robbie laughed. “You had given your butler the day off! We had no idea how to fend for ourselves. What did we even end up making?”

“Marmite and toast! You got Marmite everywhere! So I decided to lick you clean.” He grabbed Robbie’s hand and kissed his fingers. “I sucked every last finger in my mouth,” he whispered seductively. “And then you had some on your chin.” His teeth nipped at the younger man’s jawline. “It was all over your clothes too, so I undressed you, laid you down, and made love to you right there on the kitchen floor.”

Gary undid the button on Robbie’s trousers and pulled the zipper down. This time he was met with no objections, so he slid his hand in and palmed Robbie’s erection, eliciting a guttural groan out of the brunette. With a newfound confidence, Gary pulled Robbie’s briefs and trousers down in one swift motion.

“Gaz…”

Gary silenced him with a finger at his mouth. His eyes widened in surprise as Robbie took the finger between his lips and sucked. He pulled his hand away reluctantly and placed it between the larger man’s legs, slowly tracing up the inner thigh.

“Gaz…” Robbie whispered again.

“I was so desperate for you that day,” Gary continued his story. “I couldn’t even bother looking for lube.” His slick finger pushed into Robbie. He heard the man below him whimper. “I think I ended up using the hand soap from the sink.”

Robbie laughed as he adjusted to a second finger entering him, “You did! I remember! My arse smelled like lemons the entire day!”

Gary reached into his pocket with his free hand and produced a small tube and a condom. “I’m a little more prepared this time.”

Before long, Gary was inside Robbie, and they found their rhythm, Gary thrusting in while Robbie pushed back with his legs wrapped around the older man’s waist.

Robbie grabbed fistfuls of sheets and threw his head back. “Gary, I need…”

“Shh…” Gary silenced him. “I know what you want.”

Gary licked his thumb and ran it across the tip of Robbie’s cock before wrapping his hand around the shaft.

“Fuck!” Robbie cursed as he arched his back off the bed.

Gary wanked him off in time with his thrusts. He could feel both of them getting closer to the edge, so he sped up his hand and his hips until he could feel Robbie start to spasm.

“Oh god!” Robbie came against Gary’s hand and his own stomach, and Gary followed immediately after inside him. He collapsed on top of the brunette.

“That was better than I remember,” Gary gasped between breaths. He tucked his head between Robbie’s neck and shoulder. “I love you.”

He could feel Robbie stiffen beneath him.

“You don’t have to say it back yet,” he assured the other man. “I can be patient.”

“Yeah.” Robbie gestured to the mess between their bodies. “I know how you are about taking things slow.”

“I mean it,” the older man said seriously. “I waited fifteen years for second chance. I can wait longer for you to fall in love with me again. I just wanted the opportunity to show you how I feel.” He kissed Robbie’s chest. “I’d wait for life.”

Robbie rolled his eyes. “That’s so corny to quote one of your own songs!”

The blonde laughed. “Well I hope you ‘Feel’ ‘No Regrets’ about what just happened between our ‘Bodies.’”

Robbie covered his face with his hand. “I can’t believe I just had sex with you.”

Gary nodded and giggled. “We were quite ‘Sexed Up.’”

The younger man groaned. “If you stop now, I’ll let you top again tomorrow.”

Gary beamed. “We’re doing this again tomorrow?”

“If you shut up, I’ll let you do whatever you want to me!”

Gary cuddled close to Robbie and kissed him silently. He laid his head down against the tattooed chest, and they fell asleep together, Gary wrapped tightly in Robbie’s arms.


End file.
